JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - They say, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade," but they always skip over the part where things get sour.
“Good Lord,” said Patti Richards, one of the owners of Rusted Vintage Market in San Marco.
Richards and fellow owners Jeanne Karst and Jim Walker were watching news coverage of themselves from a year ago when they were cleaning up the remains of their shop. Hurricane Irma all but destroyed it.
A year later, it still makes Karst tear up.
“You know, it just floods back,” Karst said.
Flooding back are the memories of their vintage finds halfway underwater. They got their first look at the extent of the water when Karst’s sons paddled to the store in a canoe and took pictures.
“The initial seeing it was just shocking,” Karst said.
So, they took their lemons and started squeezing away.
“It was stressful, but it was also exhausting because we were in here cleaning and doing repairs,” Walker said.
“Most of us have never tried to put a store back together again, that’s a whole learning curb,” Richards said.
After awhile though, came the sugar. They found that out of the rubble came fresh new ideas.
“We were so in a negative space it was like, ‘let’s dream,’” Richards said.
“Hopefulness came and we got excited about doing some new things,” Karst said.
They decided on a color scheme for the shop, created a wall of built-in shelving, and a new checkout counter. Even with all their progress, though, they acknowledge this past year hasn’t been as kind to everyone.
“Life has moved on, life in San Marco has not,” Walker said. “We still see things that are boarded up and being worked on.”
Still, they’re proud to say they took the sour fruit and made a tall cold drink they can be proud of.
“Good lemonade,” Richards said.
Fortunately for them, they say they were never in danger of needing to close down for good. Knowing what they know now and being in the same location, they say they'd likely move everything out of the store if the area were ever to be hit as hard again.